AMMAN, Jordan -- Syrians at a sprawling refugee camp in
northern Jordan scrambled to batten down their tents against torrential rains
and high winds as a blustery winter storm battered parts of the Middle East for
a second day Thursday.

The storm, dubbed Alexa, already has
pounded much of Lebanon and parts of northern Syria, pushing temperatures below
zero and dumping snow and heavy rains. In some parts of Israel and the West
Bank, meanwhile, government offices and schools shuttered to wait out the
winter weather.

Syrian refugees across the region, however, were
among the hardest hit by the storm, which heaped another layer of misery on the
already grim existence of many of the more than 2 million Syrians who have fled the civil war raging in
their homeland.

"It was very cold, windy and
muddy and all I was able to think of is how to protect my wife and four
children," said Ali Shatri, 36. He said aid workers quickly evacuated him
and other families whose tents were blown down to other secure areas in the
camp.

Zaatari spokesman Wadah Hmoud said two
days of heavy rains have flooded several areas of the camp. He said aid workers
were struggling to replace tents with prefabricated housing units for the
camp's 120,000 inhabitants.

With the weather making life more
miserable in the refugee camps, Amnesty International published a report
Friday chiding European nations for “the pitifully
low numbers of refugees from Syria they are prepared to resettle.”

International resettlement has seen a
startlingly low number of the more than 2 million Syrian refugees given new
homes in Europe and the United States.

According to Amnesty, while Germany has
pledged to re-home 10,000 Syrians, all other EU countries combined have offered
places to just 2,340, and Britain and Italy are among the nations which have
offered no resettlement places.

The United States has resettled less
than 100 Syrians, according to news reports and aid groups.

In neighboring Israel and the
Palestinian territories, the early snow surprised many.

In Jerusalem, schools cancelled
classes and buses in and out of the city were not operating. Snow blanketed
palm and cypress trees. Revelers threw snowballs along the walls of the Old
City, while others built a snowman across from a U.S. Consulate building.

By midafternoon, the snow had turned
to a cold rain, leaving Jerusalem streets slippery with slush. The main highway
linking the city with Tel Aviv was closed till midday.

A light snow also fell throughout the
West Bank, prompting officials to close schools and government offices for the
day.

In the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry
said authorities evacuated 30 people to hospitals and moved others into
shelters after heavy rains caused flooding and power outages.

Yousef al-Zahar, the director of
Gaza's civil defense, said most of the water collecting pools were already
filled with rain. He said a lack of fuel meant municipalities could not pump it
out, so authorities were trying to close some streets with sand bags to channel
water away from homes as a temporary solution.

Snow covers a square in Cairo, Dec. 13, 2013.

Twitter/Amr ElGabry

Even Cairo, the capital of Egypt which
swelters in temperatures well over 100 degrees through much of the summer, saw
a fresh coat of snow fall on Friday.

While the Egyptian capital has had some
flurries in recent years, many in the country couldn’t remember the last time
the white stuff stuck around long enough to make a snowball.